I know there'll be someone on here who can help me!
The village I've just moved to has its own WiFi network.
It was set up by the locals because the only broadband available was very slow. The whole thing is run as a co-operative and now costs £5 a month. All good so far.
However even though I can see my closest 'node' about 500m up the road, the signal is very weak. The guy who advises the members seems a bit unsure of what I need to improve the signal. Firstly, he says I need an external aerial for the lappy which is fine. But then he says I probably need a wireless router. And perhaps an aerial external to the house....and then...
And this guy just happens to have all the aforementioned for sale.....

I want to know what I need to such the WiFi signal into my house so my lappy can see it. Ideally, I'd like the PCs to work with the WiFi and possibly the printer.
Don't let me down guys.
TIA, Owelly

500M is a bloody long way for wifi!!!

You should be able to get a semi commercial reciever with a bigamplifiing aerial and use that as a repeater station into your home. assuming the signal from the other end is big enough....

you will need a wireless access point with an external aerial to get the local wifi into your home.
if you are using several pc's and a wireless printer you will need to create a local wireless network in your home
you can do this with another wireless

2 of these

access point

one of these

aerial
look on CCL computers and they have all the kit you need.

[Edited on 24/9/10 by skydivepaul]

Do it the locost way with a Pringles can

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantenna

that is the best way to do it ..........

but if you want to play first, go onto instructables.com and they have some info on how to make your own parabolic antenna to amplify the signal. You'd need a receiver that has an aerial so i'd look at something like this to play with.

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=47636&tid=gsearch


edited to add, you could splash out and get this,

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=49208&tid=gsearch


edited to add the instructables link, make sure you read the comments as they revise / improve the idea in them
http://www.instructables.com/id/Uni-Directional-WIFI-Range-Extender/


good luck

[Edited on 24/9/10 by MikeR]


[Edited on 24/9/10 by MikeR]

you just need a range extender with an external arial. 500m is gonna be so weak tho, got any neighbours that can extend the signal?

ps line of sight is key, if things get in the way they will seriously weaken the signal. If you do go the USB route the USB cable length max is 5m ........ but if you connect the usb lead to a powered hub you can then put another 5m lead to the laptop

Not sure how many times you can do this - i've done it once and it worked for me.

Cheers guys. I knew you wouldn't fail me!

cooorrrr get me strainer. I cant get my wifi upstairs i need to make that thing!!

If you have a a wifi card with SMA aerial connector easy way to do t is build a Cantenna from a Pringles tin or buy and external aerial from Ebay.

http://www.mikestechblog.com/joomla/networking-section/wifi-wireless-category/58-extend-wireless-wifi-network-building-24-ghz-cantenna.html

Stick one of these up on your roof where it's got clear line of sight to the nearest AP, and plug it into a wireless cable router down inside the house.

With clear line of sight (including a clear fresnel zone) you can get links tens of kilometres long with sub-£100 AP's these days. I've managed stable, fast links up to 1000m recently with virtually no line of sight (across a theme park full of big metal rollercoasters), 10 years ago it took £3000 worth of Cisco kit to do the job and it was flaky as hell.